A baby born with two heads died yesterday despite surgeons' initial hopes that she had survived a pioneering operation

Seven-week-old Rebeca Martinez had the head of an undeveloped, conjoined twin fused to the top of her skull.

After 11 hours of complex surgery, doctors first announced she had survived and was already moving her legs. Within hours, however, she had bled to death as the wound failed to heal and her blood would not clot properly.

'We knew this was very risky surgery, and now we accept what God has decided,' said her father, Franklin Martinez, 29, standing exhausted with his wife at a hospital news conference at Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.

'Rebeca is no longer with us physically, but no one will forget her.' His wife, Marie-Gisela, added: 'She was too little to resist the surgery.'

Dr Benjamin Rivera, one of the brain surgeons, said Rebeca lost a lot of blood in the operation and had several transfusions. Her blood would not clot afterwards as her body was trying to pump blood to the second head.

'In that case, you can't do anything. This is the worst complication that can happen in this kind of surgery,' Rivera said.

The operation was essential because by the time Rebeca was three months' old she would have become unable to move her own head, and suffered brain damage as a consequence.

In the delicate operation, involving 18 surgeons, nurses and other staff, the second head, including brain, ears, eyes and lips was removed. The team closed Rebeca's skull using a bone grafted from another part of her body.

Hers is only the eight documented case in the world of a condition known as parasitic twins. Seven other unborn babies all died in the womb.